


Shadow

by Lyzaander



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Exorcists, F/M, Gen, Japanese Culture, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, Supernatural Elements, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-23
Updated: 2013-11-30
Packaged: 2018-01-02 10:10:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1055526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyzaander/pseuds/Lyzaander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The thrills die down, the novelty fades. All that remains is the sense of duty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 悲喜交交(hikikomogomo)

**Author's Note:**

> Practically ancient work that I dredged up from my external drive. I hope to finish this someday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 悲喜交交(hikikomogomo)  
> bittersweet, having mingled feelings of joy and sorrow, joy and sorrow alternating in one's heart

Sasuke is merely seven years of age when he sees his first oni[i] \- ten shades of blood red skin and so  _hideous_  he is sure the image has burnt itself into his eyes. All he has to do is to close his eyes, and the image comes out in its full glory effortlessly.

The event marks the start of a whirlwind, a flurry of encounters that rush past his eyes, yet managing to imprint themselves in his memory with startling clarity. Were he to try and recall anything before that, all that would come to mind would be painfully simple. Aniki's smiles, his mother's warm hugs and his father's rumbling laughter… memories of the annual summer festival fireworks, tumbling around the garden believing that he was a fire-breathing dragon.

Life had been simple then.

Life… had been happy then.

  


* * *

[i] Oni – Ogres from Japanese folklore.


	2. 前奏(zensou)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 前奏(zensou)  
> n. prelude, overture

There are shouts ringing with familiarity, the overenthusiastic patting of backs, and the solid cacophony of wood hitting wood.

Sasuke hardly glances at his surroundings; it is hardly an unfamiliar sight, and the ruckus before him is far more entertaining.

There is to be an ascension ceremony later tonight for some of the Uchiha, a transition from childhood to adulthood.

The entire clan grounds are a hotbed of activity tonight; it seems that nearly all of the Uchiha relatives have been gathered. It is a holiday of sorts, because there are exuberant greetings and hugs everywhere, and his usually strict  _chichiue **[i]**_  has excused Sasuke from attending school for the next two days. The multitudes of people in the courtyard are garbed in the same dark colours, with the Uchiha clan symbols fully visible.

All the domestic help have been sent home the day before; his mother mans the kitchen, while his other female relatives are in charge of the inventories and preparations in the compound. The men are busy, finishing up the construction of a gigantic platform in the middle of the courtyard, where everyone will attend the ceremony.

Sasuke is seated with the rest of the children, well away from the heavy lifting and the hot kitchens, where several older relatives regal them with the ancient folklore of men keeping _kairyokuranshin **[ii]** _ at bay as well as epic wars of ordinary men defeating demons with the strength of armies. Kana-obasan's[iii] words paint an intriguing picture, whilst Kazuma-ossan[iv] does the part of a fire-breathing demon with startling likeness with each swig of alcohol from the clear bottle and a spray of the liquid onto a flame.

The bursts of fire that he breathes out illuminates the dark night, casting creepy shadows on the wall, but Sasuke can't help but admire the techniques of his uncle. A sprout of concern shoots up when he sees his uncle grimace.  _Had he hurt himself?_ It is only for a split second, because Kazuma recovers with a grin showing two rows of white teeth.

" _You wanna to see something really, really cool?"_

Sasuke and the rest answer with matching fervour, and Kazuma nods sagely, which makes the rest of the group giggle with anticipation and delight.  _His mouth is empty_ , Sasuke realises, and he is shocked when his uncle breathes out a flame in the shape of a dragon. It writhes in the black night like how a real dragon should… and then the realization strikes Sasuke.

_His uncle has breathed out fire without the help of the alcohol in the glass bottle._

The awe and noise that pours out of his other similar-aged relatives' wanes down and Sasuke picks up on the change of atmosphere. The once jovial air is now gone, and the strained expressions and hushed irritated murmurs deviate from Sasuke's memory of past ceremonies. The grand platform is just a few planks short, but all work has been abandoned.

The world seems to have stopped for a moment, and Sasuke can’t help but think that maybe Time has broken down just a little.

Sasuke and the handful of children that have been minded by Aunt Kana and Uncle Kazuma are bundled into the cars. A few of his cousins try to protest, but even the bravest and the brattiest are quelled easily with the grave faces that all the adults are wearing. His uncle Hiroaki and his fifth aunt Meina get into the car, and even before the car can clear the parking lot properly, his uncle starts to drive at startling speeds, making him feel as if there are butterflies in his stomach whenever the car suspends itself in the air for a tiny moment. Thankfully, the butterflies do not seem to want to come out of his mouth, because no one likes to clean up messes.

His cousins doze off despite the excessive speeds, but Sasuke refrains from asking questions after a glance at the stormy expression of his uncle in the reflection of the rear view mirror. The streetlights flash intrusively into the cabin of the car in a strobe-light effect, and Sasuke can’t help but feel that they are cruising through another world.

And then everything seems to _happen_ all at once. He sees Aunt Meina grab something from the centre console, and then a shockwave rocks the car back despite the forward motion. The car swerves as Uncle Hiroaki turns the wheel in a fluid motion. The car seems to hang on onto thin air before it flops back onto four wheels, and Sasuke can see that their car is parked parallel next to another car with just barely with a meter of clearance.

His uncle stays in the car while his aunt Meina goes to check the situation. The pop music coming out of the stereo makes Sasuke sick somehow; there is an ill sort of feel creeping up on him, and his eyes are starting to tear; part fear and frustration at the incomprehensible situation and part irritation from the dry and cold air blasting from the air ducts.

He keeps his eyes in the general direction where Meina has disappeared beyond the line of cars. His two younger cousins Masato and Mori on his left and right are slumped on his shoulders, and Sasuke does all he can not to jar them from their sleep, even though his clothes are getting slick from the drool.

His other cousins in the back are most likely asleep as well, because there is not even a peep of noise from the trio of loud children.

Just when he rubs his eyes from the tiredness and irritation, it happens. A flash of light blooms through his eyelids, and even though he has not seen the light directly, the glow of warm light is familiar. It sets his heart racing, a flood of warm summer memories spent in the sprawling courtyards where his older relatives regal the youngsters with breaths of fire, not unlike today. He had thought them to be a clan of dragons, because it had seemed cool to be one. There was no disenchanting moment when he learnt that the Uchiha were no dragons, for that had been the moment that he was deemed old enough to learn the art of fire-breathing.

People start to run in the direction where the car has come from, and shortly after, a giant fireball blooms. Another flash of fire erupts from beyond the cars, and he now knows that it is not the product of fire breathing; no human lungs could propel flammable liquids in the swirling arc of fire. He could have sworn that he'd seen a _Hinotori_[v], an infinitely more majestic creature than the embroidered Japanese firebird that he sees everyday on the silk screen of the grand dining room in the Uchiha estate.

The flame vanishes, only to appear again in a fierce cyclone of orange. And then the fire phoenix shows itself to be a real entity, not his childish imagination. It rears up, and a flutter of its wings sends a wave of flames before swooping down in the same direction.

Sasuke spares a glance at his uncle Hiroaki, and finds the normally jovial man with a white knuckled grip on the steering wheel. A burst of white-hot flame shoots up, and the man seems to have been jolted into action.

The man sweeps the top of the glove compartment, and his hand comes away with a stack of papers cut into neat rectangles. He hands half the stack to Sasuke, with brisk orders to stick at least three on each window, and to have five tucked away in the clothes of each of his sleeping cousins.

The papers have kanji upon intricate design and vice versa, and make his fingers tingle, the sensation akin to touching a vibrating handphone.

The moment Sasuke turns around from placing the last of the seals on the back window, he hears the activation of the child-lock and the slam of the car door after Hiroaki's departure.

Sasuke scrambles to the front - it's not an unfamiliar situation. Shisui-nii has locked him in the car several times before. All Sasuke has to do is to jiggle the handle of the driver's seat before Hiroaki locks the car.

He succeeds in freeing himself – Hiroaki has not locked the car because the man is busy running at full tilt towards the spirals of the Hinotori's flames. A column of fire erupts; the fiery bird shoots out of the column, only to die prematurely.

Hiroaki's voice rings through the air, "Meina!"

Sasuke feels his stomach sink at the despair in his uncle's voice, but he edges toward the direction where both his relatives have gone. There is the lingering stench of something being left to burn and smoulder, and beyond the slightly charred road, nothing would point out that there had been raging fires just a minute before.

He peeks from behind a car, and sees Hiroaki as a whole new person. Memory tells him that that is Hiroaki-ossan, his father's cousin, but the man before him with the unsmiling face is worlds apart from the man who always seemed to point out the bright side of matters to Sasuke.

He seems even more of a stranger, the Hiroaki in the car and the Hiroaki now standing before the seven year old boy. His uncle holds what seems to be a bow made of a dark red flame in one hand, and arrows of bright yellow flames in between the fingers of the other hand. Sasuke is shaken out of his awe and disbelief of the behaviour of the flames because Hiroaki doesn't seem to be burnt by the flames in any way, when the man nocks two of the arrows and sets them flying elegantly into the air, a gentle arc... into a noxious mass of writhing black mass.

An ear-splitting shriek cuts through the air, the black mass wriggles frantically in a comical fashion before it is engulfed in a ball of fire. Sasuke feels the heat of the fire even from the great distance; the soft caress of heat in the chilly autumn night air.

Sasuke lets out a soft gasp when four more replace the incinerated pile of monster ash from the swirling shadows, and Hiroaki hears him.

There is part horror and anger in his uncle's voice, "You were supposed to stay in the car!"

  


* * *

[i] 父上Honorific meaning ‘honorable father’

[ii]  怪力乱神Supernatural phenomena, spirits and demons

[iii] おばさんSuffix meaning ‘Aunt’

[iv] おっさんSuffix meaning ‘Uncle’

[v]  火の鳥 - Literally means ‘bird of fire’, the Chinese Phoenix has several meanings, none of which are related to immortality or ‘rising from the ashes’


	3. 戦慄(senritsu)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 戦慄(senritsu)  
> shudder, shiver, tremble with fear, horrible, terrible, hair-raising

Sasuke’s fear of his uncle’s rage is quickly dissolved, because the shadowy creatures lunge towards him. The _kagemono **[1]** _ barely clear half the distance before they are struck down by arrows of pure fire. The heat warms his face as the fire consumes the tangible pieces of shadow.

"What are you _gaping_ about for, boy? Come here before you _die_!"

Sasuke is snapped out of staring at the piles of ash, and quickly moves towards his uncle, stench of burnt flesh hanging like a shroud over the area. He whimpers at the strong grip pulling him behind his uncle, but says nothing as the monsters seemed to melt effortlessly into the cover of the darkness.

His uncle mutters a few words that jolt Sasuke's memory. There are words of prayer to _Ame-no-Uzume **[2]**_ for the blessing of dawn, and words of reverence for Amaterasu to allow the sun to stretch its rays over the land – something that his mother Mikoto often sings whilst bustling around the household.

The flames in his uncle's hand burn with renewed vigour, lighting up the area around them even more. The sound of claws scratching against the road has Hiroaki shooting an arrow in the direction of noise.　The arrow touches the ground and flares, revealing several creatures that would not look out of place in the large book of  _youkai **[3]**_  that his brother sometimes reads for pleasure.

Sasuke shudders at the huddle of creatures; there is a pool of blood, and his keen eyesight spots a dismembered finger thrown out from the circle of snarling creatures. Something snatches it up from the ground, but the light from the fire arrow has died out, and all Sasuke can see are several eyes gleaming back at him.

Hiroaki continues his murmurs; the words are strangely comforting to Sasuke. Something lunges at them, and his uncle shoots it down without hesitance. But as the fire gobbles up at the morsel of darkness, the flame grows and reveals even more bad news.

They are surrounded.

The fire flickers, but Sasuke can see enough to know that there are an endless army of monsters lying in wait outside the ring of light.

A string of angry words fly out from his uncle's mouth now, and the man jerks Sasuke to his front and thrusts more charms onto Sasuke's chest with one hand with an air of desperation and… something else that Sasuke cannot identify.

"Listen, Sasuke. I can't take all of these creatures with you in the way. You know how a hexagon looks like right?" Sasuke nods, and the man continues, "I will burn a circle into the ground. You will have to step in that circle and put those charms in a hexagon."

The circle is burnt into the ground a distance away, and Hiroaki shoves Sasuke in the general direction of it. Sasuke feels the tears welling up in his eyes, and his hands are shaking as the flaming arrows fly above his head and all around him and incinerate all the shadows and monsters alike.

The hexagon is constructed, and a flash of warmth overcomes him. A monster lunges into the barrier and is deflected, but Sasuke is still nervous. He turns towards his uncle, and watches the man battle off creature after creature. The bow and arrows are gone, and Hiroaki now wields a sickle attached to a chain with a ball at the end. The monsters are cautious after the first ten have been decimated into ash, and only attempt attacks at his uncle's back. Sasuke stifles a sob as one is successful and manages to carve a claw into Hiroaki's back. The monster is given a loving hug by the flaming chain for its efforts, and collapses into ash.

But the damage is done, and the blood trickles freely, soaking the heavy ceremonial fabrics.

The tears begin to flow freely, and Sasuke blinks rapidly to keep his uncle within his vision. His uncle keeps eye contact with Sasuke, and gives that familiar smile and wink before mouthing something. It makes Sasuke cry even more, as the man falls to his knees when another monster launches itself at him.

The rest of the grotesque horde joins in like a pack of starving animals.

_"Don't cry, Sasuke. It isn't your fault."_

The man's last words before he succumbs to the monsters. More tears and sobs escape him, but a ball of orange flames engulf the writhing mass, growing outward and catching more _kagemono_ unawares. Several screeches ring out –  Sasuke waits, but his uncle does not emerge from the flames and ashes on the ground like a hero from a _shonen manga_.

_‘He's dead. I killed him. I killed my uncle. My family won't want me anymore.’_

Heavy footsteps draw Sasuke’s attention, and the slam of something metallic on the asphalt numbs Sasuke’s heart. There is disbelief at what he is seeing before him, but that is quickly overwhelmed by fear. A club with spikes on one end fashioned entirely out of gold, glinting from the light of the streetlamps.

_Oni ni kanabo_ _u_ _**[4]** _ _._

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? A cute little morsel in a cute little dish," the voice is all snarls and growls that are barely coherent.

The one before him isn't like the storybook depictions. This one is ugly and grotesque, and all the details of the demon are overwhelming; there are boils and ridges on the blood-red skin, and maggots and lice crawling in its hair. Drool and blood seep from its mouth, with black eyes piercing Sasuke's heart and soul.

The Oni swings his club down onto the barrier, but the barrier thankfully deflects the impact. Sasuke smothers the sigh of relief; the edges of the paper talismans have begun to smoulder.

The club comes down again, and the papers blacken even more. Sasuke can't do anything else but to hope the demon goes away; the talismans on the floor were the last of the lot.

But even a seven year old knows that the hope is worth nothing when the club comes down onto the barrier again.

It is only a matter of time.

  


* * *

[1] 影物 – Literally meaning ‘shadow objects’

[2] 天宇受売命, 天鈿女命 _Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto –_ She was the one to bring out the Sun Goddess Amaterasu out of hiding with her dance, and is regarded as the goddess of dawn, mirth and revelry in Shinto religion.

[3] 妖怪 – refers to the supernatural beings in Japanese folklore

[4] 鬼に金棒 – Literally meaning ‘ogre with a gold bat/club. A folklore reference, but it can also mean a formidable person, near-invincible. In this case, a literal ogre that is near-invincible.


End file.
